1 Comment

I hope everyone is paying close attention to the Iran situation. This is what to expect when “the government” wants to control what “the people” are trying to get by honest protest. It’s so sad what is happening to those people. But it doesn’t quite hit home when you sit in comfort and watch these events half a world away. What if it happened here? What would you do? Cry? Get angry? Both?

We’ve all read about the protests, civil unrest and killings that have shaken Iran this month after the election. News of the Iranian special police that have walked around crowds with a literal license to kill, the Revolutionary Guard and riot police using live rounds against protesters, tear gas, and the deaths of several people not even affiliated within the protests. The latest bit of news has added insult to injury, or death, in this case.

A 19-year-old boy was standing at an intersection returning from class. He was going to be married, and was taking classes in acting. When he never returned home, his family searched for him only to find out that he had been shot in the head, apparently at random or just by bad luck. As has been the case in Iran, the authorities have allegedly killed people who had virtually no participation in the rallies, to going so far as to breaking up couples walking down the street to prevent civilians from grouping together.

When the family went to collect the young man’s body, they were met with a $3,000 fee. A fee for what, you may ask? To pay for the bullet that killed their son. Unless that bullet was made of platinum infused with unicorn blood and blessed by an Eskimo medicine man, that’s a serious case of extortion by the Iranian government.

It’s amazing to hear about the $3G bullet-fee extortion. With the world’s eye on Iran, things like this won’t pass by unnoticed as they have before. The more that comes out about the insane things that take place there, the more the public opinion on Iran turns against it.